Dimitri Belikov
“As we grow and change, sometimes things we've experienced before take on a new meaning. It'll happen for the rest of your life.” - Blood Promise Dimitri Belikov (Дмитрий Беликов') is a dhampir and the second child and only son of an abusive Moroi father and Olena Belikova. He is the younger brother of Karolina Belikova and older brother to Sonya Belikova and Viktoria Belikova. He is a famous Guardian, guarding friend and charge, Ivan Zeklos, who was killed when he wasn't on watch. He was the guard of Princess Vasilisa Dragomir. When Vasilisa won the throne, he was assigned to the Queen's boyfriend, Christian Ozera. He is the boyfriend, lover, and former teacher of famous Guardian Rosemarie Hathaway. He is also the second known person to be turned from his Strigoi state back into his dhampir self through spirit. He is considered a god based on his amazing fighting skills. Early Life Dimitri Belikov was born to Dhampir Olena Belikova and an abusive royal Moroi in Baia, Russia. He was the second child, being the younger brother of Karolina Belikova, but the older brother of Sonya Belikova and Viktoria Belikova. Though raised in a dhampir commune - residence of blood whores and their offspring - it would seem that he had a loving environment provided by his mother and grandmother, though it was seen that Dimtri's father was abusive towards his mother. At the age of thirteen, angered and enraged by the contiunious abuse, Dimitri beat his father to the point where his father refused to return to Baia. He attended St. Basils in Russia, where he became friends with royal Moroi, Ivan Zeklos, of whom which became his charge when he graduated. Dimitri was seen to have graduated with high grades and honours, under the guidance of his mentor, Galina. Only a couple years out of schooling, Dimitri was on holidays when Ivan and his other Guardian where attacked and killed by Strigoi. Dimitri was sent to America, where he was assigned to the discovery and retreival of both Princess Vasilisa Dragomir and Rose Hathaway; both had fled the school in their sophomore year, but were found in Portland, Or egon by Dimitri, after a year's investigation. He was made the Guardian of Vasilisa. Physical Appearance Described as having the looks of a God, Dimitri is an extremely handsome and sensual young man, with a height of six-foot-seven and a lean, well-muscled physique. He has brown chin-length hair, which he often wears in a short ponytail, chocolate-brown eyes, and a clear deeply-tanned complexion. Dimitri rarely smiles fully, but when he does, it is usually when he is around the people he is fond of (like Rose). He frequently wears a leather duster, which is a long brown coat he most likely started wearing because of his love of Westerns. When he first meets Rose, he has six Moln ija marks along with his promise mark tattooed on the back of his neck. Personality Dimitri always puts his duty as a guardian before his personal desires. He is described to as mysterious, intense, brooding, serious, protective, noble, passionate and brave. He is also incredibly romantic, compassionate, gallant, chivalrous and complex. He always needs to be in acti on or he gets restless. Honor, duty, and nobility are things he regards very highly, and he takes his job and his honor very seriously. Underneath his god-like, tough guy exterior is a man who has the same feelings as everyone else; some even regarded by Rose Hathaway as "intense" and "passionate". He is also described by Rose to be very wise, skilled and infinitely patient when it comes to making love. It is noted that he often overwhelms himself with guilt for the death of Ivan, his best friend, and the acts that he performed when he was a Strigoi. Despite his mysterious god-like complex, he starts to let his guard down when meeting Rose and opening his heart up to her more than anyone else. Along with this, Dimitri's aura always lights up around Rose, highlighting his deep and ever growing love for her. Shadow Kiss Shadow Kiss starts as Rose has a dream from Lissa because she was sucked into Lissa's head while she was with Christian. She was freaked out by this and was afraid to go back to sleep so she then ran out into the academy grounds, bumping into Dimitri. Soon after, she eavesdropped on Dimitri and Alberta, learning that Victor was being put on trial for his crimes. Furthermore, Rose soon saw a ghost soon after Dimitri left her, turning out to be Mason. It shocked her so much that one time, in field experience, when she spotted Mason standing there- gazing at her which such a sad and modest look that it immediately stopped her from "protecting" the Moroi in this case, Christian. Soon after, she gets dragged into a conflict with the other guardians on her, and gets interrogated badly until Dimitri stepped in and managed to stop the interrogation, allowing Rose to calm down and get away from them. Even after the interrogation with the other guardians ended, Dimitri himself started to interrogate her a bit in which ended in Ros e refusing to tell him the truth, ending up lying to him. One day when Rose and the others were on the plane going back to the academy from the Royal Court, Rose suddenly sees Mason with other ghosts- Lissa's parents and siblings, Victor Dashkov's guardians, and others she didn't know standing there, accompanied by headache. The faces she saw overpowered her, leaving her feeling overwhelmed with guilt and sadness forcing her to get out of her seat throwing her hands in the air, screaming "Make them go away!" a few times before passing out right there. When they get back to the academy, Alberta and Dimitri sent Rose straight to the medic clinic and waited for her to awake then to question her about what happened in the plane. Rose, feeling she shouldn't lie to her interrogators, gave in. She told them and Dr. Olzenski about the ghosts she had been seeing, and how upset and shocked she was. Right after she was done talking, Dr. Olzenski took Alberta and Dimitri with her and started talking to them about Rose having a "mental breakdown," and that Rose may have to leave her guardian classes because of that. Unfortunately, Rose had been eavesdropping at the very same moment and was so shocked that she immediately threw open the door and tried to argue with them. Rose didn't get exactly what she wanted, so she was cut short of field experience. One day Rose by accidentally slipped into Lissa's mind and found out that Jesse was torturing her, trying to make her fight him with compulsion. Suffering from what he had done to her, Lissa started to go into a spirit frenzy because of the dark feelings that were slipping into her. She attacked him with her powers, making him see what wasn't there. Rose had hurried over and tried to help Lissa get over it and stop. "It isn't you." she had said. After Rose absorbed the dark feelings from Lissa when she was torturing Jesse, she became taken over by the dark feelings and wanted to hurt or kill Jesse. Alberta had Dimitri take Rose away to calm down. When she tried to escape, he restrained her and helped her fight those dark feelings. They eventually ended up making love in the cabin with Rose losing her virginity to him. When they left, Rose saw Mason again, who warned her that there were Strigoi on campus. " Tell the guardians buria." Dimitri told Rose. Rose went to warn the school guardians, but he remained behind to fight the Strigoi. The campus went under lockdown, but those who were outside were taken by the Strigoi. Learning that Eddie was among the taken ones, Rose got the guardians to conduct a rescue mission and Mason helped her find the Strigoi. When the battle was over, he walked with Rose and they discussed how to work out their guardian duties and their relationship. As the assault team were about to escape, several more Strigoi ambushed them. Nathan, a blond Strigoi, overwhelemed Dimitri and bit him. Rose wanted to stay and go back for him, but her mother refused to let her for day was bleeding away, and soon the Strigoi would come after them, so she ran. Mason told her Dimitri was turned a Strigoi so she left Lissa to look for him in Russia, using funds given to her by Adrian Ivashkov. Strigoi During Shadow Kiss, Strigoi get into the school and attack the students, taking many prisoners. When the guardians go on a rescue mission to drive them from their hiding place and retake the prisoners, Dimitri is taken and turned, then disappears. In Blood Promise, Rose finds Dimitri and he is shown to have accepted his fate and even prefers the life of a Strigoi to the enslavement of being a guardian. He attempts to convince Rose to let him turn her because he has not lost his lust for her, though the affection is not the same seeing as Strigoi don't see beauty, they only see things that will gain them power and help their personal image, etc. During Spirit Bound, Rose finds a way to change a Strigoi to its previous form, and strictly tells Lissa that she would never allow her to do it. However, she uses her spirit and charms a stake, pushing Rose out of the way when she is about to kill Dimitri. Then she stakes Dimitri through the heart with the help of a distraction from Christian. He is soon changed from Strigoi to a guilty and heartbroken dhampir. He states that he owes his life to Lissa, and, he doesn't voice it but, that he still owes his life to Rose too. And the way that he owes his life to her is if he stays away from her for good. He feels horrible for what he did to her in Siberia and thinks that is the only way. Dimitri feels that there is no way it will be possible that he will be able to forgive himself for all he did as a Strigoi. He keeps on pushing himself away from Rose when she tries to get closer again. At one point, he is so desperate to keep her away that he lies and tells her that he does not love her any more. "Love fades. Mine has." This is on Rose's mind for a long while and she tries to make herself get over Dimitri and to accept that he has moved on and she should too, but she can never truly accept it, no matter what she tells herself. In Last Sacrifice, Dimitri escapes the Court with Rose, who was a convinced murderess of the late queen Tatiana, further convincing people that he is a Strigoi. During the journey they come across many different gangs of Strigoi. Dimitri has to call a previous Strigoi accompany called Boris and pretend to be a Strigoi. Rose and Sydney thought that the experience was terrifying and his mood was awful afterwards. On one encounter, when they meet Donovan, he nearly has a mental breakdown from the crushing guilt and memories of being Strigoi. Rose manages to help him by telling him to find the beauty in life, as Strigoi can't see it. On the entire journey, Dimitri begins to forgive himself more and more as his relationship with Rose grows stronger. Relationships Rosemarie HathawaySimply put, Rosemarie Hathaway is the love of Dimitri's life. They fi rst met when Dimitri came to take Rose and Lissa back to St. Vladimir's. When they returned to school Dimitri fought for her to remain at school to become a Guardian as Kirova agreed but Dimitri was made her mentor. During their training, they found out many things about each other and Dimitri began to fall in love with her, though he could not show it because they both had to protect Lissa and could not be distracted by each other. When Victor placed a lust charm on a rose necklace he gave Rose, under the influence of it, they nearly made love in Dimitri's room. In a way of getting Rose out of his head, he chose to be closer to friend Tasha Ozera, but could not stop thinking about Rose all the time. He became jealous when she started talking to Adrian Ivashkov, warning her against him. "You're not an adult yet," is what he told her when he caught her in Adrian's room. When Rose went with Christian to stop Mason, Eddie and Mia from attacking Strigoi in Spokane, Dimitri was extremely worried over Rose and when he arrived at the scene he was the only one that got through to her. During Shadow Kiss, when Rose's final training was coming up, the sexual desires between Dimitri and Rose started to heighten towards each other. He became extremely worried when spirit's effects were making her see ghosts, most notably Mason, who had died in Spokane. When she took spirit from Lissa, Rose brutally attacked Jesse Zeklos. Dimitri took her to a cabin in the woods where he was able to break through the spirit from this, and made love to Rose for the first time.Shortly after this, Dimitri was attacked by a Strigoi and was forcefully turned into a Strigoi, fleeing to Russia to stay away and protect Rose. When Rose came to Russia to kill Dimitri, in Blood Promise, he captured her and drank from her, trying to persuade her to be awakened. When she escaped he followed her and when she stabbed him with a silver stake, believing to have killed him, the stake did not kill Dimitri. When Lissa was able to turn Dimitri back in Spirit Bound, under Rose's guidance and help, he pushed her away to protect her even to the point when he told her that his love for her had faded, breaking her heart and causing her to nearly have sex with Adrian. Dimitri and others broke Rose out of prison when she was framed for killing Queen Tatiana in Last Sacrifice, they ran away. Over time, their love for one another grew stronger. When Rose was once again overcome with spirit, Dimitri was able to make her forgive herself for accidentally killing Victor. Dimitri proclaimed that he loved her, and they made love again in the hotel that they stayed in. Dimitri and Rose travelled back to Court, when Tasha was revealed to be the killer, she shot Rose in the chest. Dimitri was overcome with grief believing to have lost her, though she recovered. After Lissa was proclaimed Queen, Rose and Dimitri were able to have a relationship as Rose was Lissa's Guardian and Dimitri was Christian's. Shortly after Rose recovered from the gunshot, bot h him and Rose went to Russia together to see his family again, and throughout the trip he kept dropping hints that he wants to marry Rose. Also, Adrian Ivashkov shares the two are inseperable when at Court and when on duty, "moved almost as one entity, like a matched pair of wolves or lions, both weary and deadly as they studied their surroundings." When off--duty he said they, "had been too wrapped up in eachother, sitting outside on a sunny day. She'd leaned against Dimitri, looking content in a way Adrian had never seen -- certainly not while he'd dated her. She'd said something that made Dimitri laugh, bringing a smile to the other man's hard features, a smile that Adrian hadn't thought was possible." When at Palm Springs, he greatly missed Rose and when she called him at the resturant according to Sydney, his face glowed and a large smile came across his face. But at Sonya and Mikhail's wedding, he is seen with Rose, arm-in-arm and dancing together. Dimitri loves Rose's hair and calls her Roza when thinking or speaking of her with affection or love.